Luxury housing spreads its wings in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Luxury housing is spreading its wings across the cities of Gujarat and the state that was earlier recognised as a cost-conscious market, has suddenly started to show changes. The high-end luxury projects seem to be the in-thing across the state in general and Ahmedabad and Vadodara in particular.

So, are Ahmedabad and Vadodara shaping up as India’s next luxury destinations? It may be very early to say so, but what cannot be denied is the fact that while it took years for luxury projects to make inroads in to some other locations, in Gujarat the luxury landscape has emerged in a very short span of time. What makes the story of Gujarat even more interesting is the fact that the luxury projects have strengthened their positioning in the state amidst overall economic slowdown. It would be better to say that luxury residential projects have stormed into this part of the world despite the slowdown.

Till 2005, the housing market of Gujarat was by-and-large mid-segment driven with most of the demand coming from the local buyers. After that, multiple demand drivers of property markets emerged in the state and this heterogeneous demand increasingly changed the lifestyle, taste and the aspirational levels of the buyers in Gujarat’s property market.

The developers who were earlier playing it safe with affordable and mid-segment housing, suddenly woke up to the reality that luxury projects not only give better profit margins but are also slow down proof as this segment of buyers were not affected by the recession.

Many feel it is not just the luxury housing that shows the way forward; rather the upcoming projects, across the verticals of asset classes that reflects that the lifestyle driven property has now spread its wings. Apart from the supreme luxurious projects coming up in the prime locations of the state, even the peripheral locations, with future potential are attracting the developers. As a result, the trends of second home is also gaining a lot of prominence in the city which has been the reason for the luxurious second home projects to emerge in the distant location of Ahmedabad like Vastrapur.

Dhaval Ajmera, director, Ajmera Realty & Infra, says, “The infrastructural growth in Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat, is absolutely encouraging. If compared to other cities like Pune or Mumbai, the property prices are still truncated. With all the preliminary amenities and facilities provided by the state government, there is an enormous scope of real estate growth in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Further, the state is showing substantial inclination towards luxury projects.”

This also raises a fundamental question as to whether the luxury market in Gujarat has any unique trend or is it spreading like other luxury markets like Mumbai and Gurgaon. Analysts believe that these are early days for the luxury housing market in the state and most of the developers are going through the learning curve. In order to understand the shape of the luxury housing market in Gujarat, one will have to wait for another few years. However, what can be vouchsafed as of now is the fact that luxury housing market is definitely spreading its wings across the state.

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